Nier Automata was made without trying to appeal to Western audiences and yet it got lots of success in the West
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Very true on the Persona 5 point, though I think we can make some distinction between "Japanese games" and "anime games." Persona 5 is unabashedly anime in many ways, whereas Automata isn't really that anime but is still undeniably Japanese.
I think all of them combined came together to shift the tides back in the favor of Japan being itself in gaming, in various ways.
Automata I think is probably the biggest culprit for unrestrained hot MCs and open thirsting getting a comeback, which is a little sad because its a lot more than that but its what most people took from it.
Breath of the Wild released at almost the exact same time, had universal acclaim, and swept Western awards. I can get excluding that one because "Nintendo," but worth mentioning.
I think Automata's importance was being a breakthrough success. Drakengard/Nier wasn't very mainstream or even that big in the weeb groups. Then Automata comes out of nowhere and knocks it out of the park. The important part was showing that the western market can be entered successfully without pandering to it. An important example for smaller devs.
Then again... PocketPair came along in 2023 said, "Americans like guns, right?" and sold 15m copies in one month.
Well that's because they were made by Cavia, a mostly anime license slop making company, so they weren't exactly big name worthy and the combat was less than stellar. Automata's biggest reason for success, besides the butt, was getting Platinum, a hugely popular company, to develop the gameplay element to cover their weaknesses.
So unfortunately I think the biggest takeaway there is "have your small indie creator get a popular company to risk their budget/time on him and you might be universally acclaimed." Because without Platinum involved, it absolutely would have remained a cult little title like Gestalt was.
"anime" tends to be one of the things unique to Japan that a lot of people outside it feel free bashing them for (or at least they did for a long time until it started becoming more mainstream recently).
I don't want to make too many comparisons between what's "more" or "less" Japanese because, like you said, both are still undeniably Japanese in this case, but there are still unique attributes that can mark a work as being different from what the world might consider palatable/acceptable compared to what the Japanese audience would enjoy without issue, and as a result its hard not to look at said things as being "more" Japanese.
Not to mention the more palatable and popular a product becomes to the world (especially if its changed in some way), the more diluted and tenuous its identity tends to become. As an example with food: Sushi is still "Japanese" I suppose, but now everybody has their own take on it (Korean sushi, American sushi, etc.) and its popular across the world. Compare that with something like Natto which is pretty much a Japan-only thing and its clearly and solidly Japanese.
The world doesn't treat all of Japan's products and their aspects equally. There's a difference between someone who says they love Japan because they drive a Toyota Camry, eats instant ramen once in a while, and play Mario Odyssey on their Nintendo Switch, and someone importing "Anime Loli Pantsu Simulator 6: Pride of the Tokugawa Clan" through a proxy service to play on their Japanese Limited Edition Hatsune Miku PS Vita while shitposting about it on 2chan and enjoying some homemade melon bread and yakisoba from his Japanese girlfriend. Nobody would bat an eye at the former, but the latter... lol.
And you'd probably be more surprised if a game like the latter sold well outside of Japan, and not be as surprised at the former doing the same.
That finally came out? I've been waiting for ages since 5 came out.
Of course we would bat an eye. How did this guy get a Japanese girlfriend who cooks and bakes?!